meanwhile, back at the ranch

a quote line to introduce a new topic of conversation, or to end a particualarly embarr-ssing line of talk.

derived from the old horse operas where action at one point was interrupted to go to the ranch in question; this line being spoken by the narrator in order to -ssist the hard of thinking. ( a hold over from radio narration style )
a;”anyway, how did your date with sarah go?”
b:’ok, i guess . . . did you know she was a hermaphrodite?”
(silence)
a:”meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . ”
an -n-logy for “to continue” or “as i was saying”, after an unexpected, odd, or irrelevant interruption, utililizing the crude visual or vebal segues of low-budget movies and television shows in the 60’s and 70’s;
you are in the middle of a conversational anecdote when someone drops an object that makes a huge racket; ” meanwhile, back at the ranch- dave said to me etc. etc.”
something you say when someone around you says something that has nothing to do with what your current conversation is about and you want to get back to the other topic.
a: i think it should be brown.
b: maybe red.
a: brown matches the rest of the room though.
c: i like bananas.
a: -odd look- …meanwhile, back at the ranch
a term meaning: 1)two events simultaneously happening in two different locations.2)while that was going on there, this was going on here at the same time.
jay was out buying jenna flowers but meanwhile, back at the ranch, jenna was sleeping with jays bestfriend.
it really refers to a lone ranger episode from the fifties…..
as the lone ranger enters the ranch house the announcer states: “meanwhile, back at the ranch, tonto, disguised as a doorkn-b, came off in the lone ranger’s hand”.
a humerous phrase indicating a simultanious happening.

derived from old western tv shows or movies. something exciting would be happening out on the range somewhere (or in town, etc), but at the same time something else would be happening at the home base, i.e. the ranch.
the bank is being robbed by smoky joe and the goatnose gang! will whitehat w-lly be able to foil the desperadoes in time?

meanwhile, back at the ranch, little betsy has discovered a gold nugget in the family’s stream.
after someone goes off on a unrelated tangent, you focus them back to the conversation at hand. usually, the tangent is from someone not originally involved in the initial conversation and spews forth unwanted or pointless information. based on old tv shows, like bonanza.
beth: what do you think about the presidential canidates, sheila?
girl 2: omg, did you see justin today? he is so totally hot. his eyelashes go on forever. do you think i should dye my hair? my roots are totally showing and i was thinking about going more red this time.
sheila: (pause) yeah. so, meanwhile, back at the ranch… i think kerry is kind of creepy, but bush is totally f–cking everything up. maybe i should go nader.

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